What is Mental State: 4 Disorders and Their Emotional Impact!

What is mental state? Let’s talk about it!

Maintaining a healthy mental state ¹is a big task in this dynamic life pattern, so we should be aware of how to lead a life where performing tasks does not feel like a burden.

A mental state covers the overall well-being of a person and how much the person is fit physically, mentally, socially, and psychologically.

Some people struggle with mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia², etc. but stay unaware and suffer alone without professional help.

Psychology: A Boon to the Mental State

Psychology studies mind and behavior, which deals with various fields like criminal psychology³, health psychology, school psychology, clinical psychology, etc.

Psychology deals with the problems of humans by understanding their thinking pattern and analyzing their past by interacting with them, as most of the problem of current life is related to every person’s past or childhood that cause uneasiness to the person.

A psychologist tries to find the emotional wound which is deteriorating a person’s mental health and creating difficulty in clear and orderly thought. So one must consult a psychologist if someone suffers from behavioral problems and extreme emotional disturbance.

Sometimes our loved ones cannot understand our psychological state and what we are going through and tend to misunderstand. In situations like this, one must try to be more open to explaining their sufferings, and the other person should be more understanding without judgment.

Mental Disorders: A Whole Way Round

Mental disorder is when the normal cognitive process of the brain gets interrupted, and the person cannot perform a day-to-day activity with ease.

Sometimes disorders happen because of sudden shocks like the loss of loved ones, and sometimes people throw themselves to suffer mental illness through self-destructive habits like overthinking.

Symptoms of disorders tend to show slowly when the extreme stages start in the illness. At that time, psychiatric intervention is necessary to tackle compulsive behavior and conflicting pressures to handle an individual properly.

People develop a pessimistic sense of life and their surroundings when they suffer from an uneasy psychological state which is not good for their mental condition.

Going to a psychiatrist or psychologist should not be taboo so that people can seek help without being conscious.

Mental disorders need time and proper care to get healed. Sometimes illnesses get cured in less time, and sometimes the same disorder gets lifelong with the person; recovery depends on the person’s willpower and how strong they are mental.

Psychiatrist vs. Psychologist

People have this common doubt about the difference between psychiatrists and psychologists. Let me help you understand the difference in the simplest way possible!

Psychologists mostly deal with therapies, and they don’t deal with medicinal drugs, whereas psychiatrists deal with medicinal drugs, and a bit of therapy is involved.

The psychologist provides counseling sessions to interact with the patient, analyze their problems and suggests remedial therapy. In contrast, the psychiatrist conducts sessions, understands the disorder, and often suggests medicines.

Psychologists deal with the illnesses like depression, anxiety, and addictions, whereas psychiatrist deals with severe depression, schizophrenia, autism, etc.

Psychiatrists work inside the hospital as mental health doctors, whereas psychologists do not necessarily work inside a hospital; they have their clinics and therapy centers.

Psychologists work with psychiatrist in disorders where both therapy and medication is needed.

Psychological Disorders

The individual’s irresponsibility causes many psychological disorders, some caused by sudden shocks, genetically inherited illnesses, and a medically stressed life.

Psychological disorders need a psychologist to deal with them to understand the problem and solve it with the client.

1. Anxiety is a Nerve-Racking Disorder

We are living in a world where cut-throat competition exists, and to compete, everybody is always busy thinking about the upcoming things and forgets about the present.

Worrying too much about the future will only bring anxiety and never a solution to things. When the limit exceeds, anxiety disorder starts to develop in a person, and after that, these people suffer from anxiety in every small thing.

A person’s surroundings affect the mental functioning of a person suffering from anxiety and always stays fully immersed in a state of worry about upcoming events.

Ways to Deal with Anxiety Issues?

One can deal with anxiety by relying on physical activities without going to a psychologist.

Physical activities are very beneficial to the person having anxiety issues because when any physical activity is performed, our body releases hormones named “endorphins,” which make us feel good and joyful.

Physical activities divert nervousness occurring due to several things, as while performing activities or sports, our mind involves in constructive thinking to complete the task with utmost excellence.

Meditation can prove to be a boon to a person suffering from anxiety because a person’s mind experiences a constant state of tension. To reduce this tension, meditation helps a lot by calming the brain cells and improving attention.

2. Depression: A Terrible Nightmare

Well, depression is no new word nowadays as this mental illness is so common that even children know about this.

But depression is no joke, as it takes the mental peace of an individual and continuously provokes them to end their life because they develop a pessimistic sense of life.⁴

This disorder has long-lasting effects on a patient’s life, making it even scarier because getting out of depression is so tough that people usually find ending life easier than getting out of it.

This illness creates an extreme emotional disturbance in a person’s cognitive processes that they get detached from their normal state of mind and only thinks about their emotional wound that cannot be changed.

A person’s depression becomes their permanent state of mind, and they give up on emotional and behavioral adjustment.

Ways to Deal with Depression

Socializing proves to be very helpful in a state of depression as people get to meet people with different mental states. When we see someone struggling more than us, we feel good that we don’t have to go through it, and our problems seem to be a bit less than theirs.

Talking to new people develops the interpersonal skill of a person, which helps them to ask for help because, in this illness, the most difficult part is to ask for help!

When people meet new people like them, they feel good and want to build a connection that develops energized focus in them.

When we see someone struggling more than us, we feel good that we don’t have to go through it, and our problems seem to be a bit less than theirs.

It requires psychiatric intervention so that they can comfortably tell their problem to at least one good individual who can be a helping hand to them.

Meditation and proper sleep go hand in hand, and both things work as a magical incantation
for a person suffering from depression, one must keep this in mind.

3. Schizophrenia

In this disorder, the person creates a false image of someone who does not exist, but the patients of schizophrenia talk to them and see them.

This mental illness requires psychiatric intervention as in this disorder person experiences continual hallucinations as someone is talking to them, which is not true in real life.

They get detached from reality and keep themselves engaged in their hallucinations and delusions. They also suffer from a state of worry that others do not believe what they are experiencing.

The feeling of consciousness is lost in this illness as the person acts emotionally and dreamlike. Mental conditions deteriorate so much that erroneous belief seems true, and they often deny reality.

Coping Methods for Schizophrenia

In this disorder, people’s cognitive processes get affected as they travel in different temporary psychological states and find the behavioral adjustment difficult. Social support is necessary as people must understand more without being irritated by their behavior.

Must require psychiatric intervention as they provide certain therapies and drugs to cure the illness in the best possible ways.

This disorder seems like a relatively permanent state of mind, but behavior-related problems can be cured if medically treated on time.

The family shouldn’t be afraid of sending the patient to a mental asylum ⁵as in an asylum, a mental status examination is conducted for the fast recovery and betterment of the patient.

In this illness hypothetical state dominates the person’s mental state, so the bickering with them never brings the solution coordinating with them will.

4. Emotional or Behavioral Problems

The mental state decides a person’s life or personal identity. Suppose the mental, physical, and emotional state does not collectively promote a person’s psychological well-being. In that case, psychiatric intervention becomes necessary to bring the person back to normal life.

Everybody faces emotional or behavioral problems in their life. Still, those unable to balance their mental state face the consequences like depression, panic attacks, involuntary bristling, despondent lack, etc.

Sometimes a person experiences pleasure in self-destructing activities like addiction to alcohol, drugs, and even a person. Our brain functions independently until and unless we destroy it.

Society is made of material objects and conflicting pressures. Everybody struggles with it, but we all make society together; we should be more understanding and welcoming because we don’t know how much the other person is bearing silently.

Symptoms of Mental Illness: Emotional and Behavioral Adjustment

Compulsive Behavior: When a person’s life changes for any reason, and they are unable to cope with it, then they develop this kind of behavior which creates long-lasting effects on their consciousness, and they start to live with this ill behavior without consulting doctors.

Erroneous belief: Sometimes people develop false beliefs about people and things in a negative way that tend to result in the absence of reality which creates chaos in the mind later. If you are also experiencing this symptom, then do consult a psychologist.

Resembles sleep: This symptom tends to show easily as in this symptom, one feels like sleeping all the time and avoids social interactions. Mental life starts deteriorating, and sleep becomes magical magic to them.

Feeling of worthlessness: Sometimes, people overthink every small thing and start feeling like an anonymous cog in this world. They feel that they are impersonal social machines in this society.

Absence of the sense of consciousness: Having this symptom can be dangerous as the individual always feel an absence of consciousness and will be unable to focus on anything. Functioning the brain at a particular time when needed seems impossible for the individual.

Continual hallucinations ⁶create a dreamlike state; the patient experiences weird things and believes they are true. They experience pleasure in hallucinations when they see someone very difficult to be present, like someone who is already dead or something like this.

Lack of satisfaction level: Doing everything or anything feels like a waste in this symptom as an individual’s satisfaction level always remain low on every occasion, achievement, gathering, etc

A Healthy Mental State is an Essential Ingredient in Life

Maintaining a healthy mental state is not tough if we start to take out time for our mental state by doing activities that can be beneficial, like meditation and spending time with our loved ones.

Developing compassion towards others by helping and understanding them and being less judgmental.

Eliminating the overthinking factor from life can be a boon to our mental health, as when we overthink, our brain cell gets ruptured, and healthy thinking becomes difficult.

Developing a habit of setting daily goals and achieving them develops a sense of competence which is good for mental health.

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2. Insel, Thomas R. “Rethinking schizophrenia.” Nature 468.7321 (2010): 187-193. ↩︎
3. Bull, Ray, Claire Cooke, and Ruth Hatcher. Criminal psychology: A beginner’s guide. Simon and Schuster, 2009. ↩︎
4. Smith, Kelly C. “Life is hard: countering definitional pessimism concerning the definition of life.” International Journal of Astrobiology 15.4 (2016): 277-289. ↩︎
5. Goffman, Erving. Asylums: Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. AldineTransaction, 1961. ↩︎
6. Goetz, C. G., et al. “Prospective longitudinal assessment of hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease.” Neurology 57.11 (2001): 2078-2082. ↩︎

Last Updated on July 29, 2024 by Sathi Chakraborty, MSc Biology